


Iruka of the Northern Sea

by HazelBeka



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, M/M, in more sense than one, iruka enjoys skinny dipping and kakashi appreciates this, seals master Iruka, technically a mission fic, terrible puns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:48:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23219521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HazelBeka/pseuds/HazelBeka
Summary: Kakashi is sent to the freezing north to track down a seals master who vanished mysteriously from the village seven years ago. He finds Umino Iruka, gone native in the frozen tundra, but meeting him raises more questions than it answers. Kakashi is intrigued.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka
Comments: 36
Kudos: 373





	Iruka of the Northern Sea

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dahtwitchi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dahtwitchi/gifts).
  * Inspired by [There you are](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22894144) by [dahtwitchi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dahtwitchi/pseuds/dahtwitchi). 



Kakashi had been on the boat for almost a week now. The journey had started in the mild waters of springtime when they’d set off from the Land of Fire, but every day since then there had been more of a bite in the air. The seas had grown choppy and grey, and in the mornings there’d been frost on the prow and patches of ice on the deck. Kakashi had wrapped himself in an extra layer each evening as the cold nights had drawn in, sipping hot soup that scalded his tongue but never quite warmed him the whole way through.

It was his own fault. He had volunteered for this mission. He’d had the travelling bug, and since he’d never been this far north before it had sounded like an adventure. He still didn’t regret it, but being cooped up on board a freezing ship for days was driving him just as crazy as staying home. It wasn’t like he could even help with the sailing or navigation. Sometimes he stood at the side of the ship and watched chunks of ice float past or smash against the hull, waiting for the dark shadow of an orca or the long tusk of a narwhal to breach the surface. Otherwise he sat beneath the sails, which snapped overhead in the stiff breeze, and read through the mission scroll again and again until every word was branded into his mind’s eye.

Typically, he didn’t have most of the details. He was being sent north, to a land so wild it didn’t have a name, in order to track down a man named Umino Iruka. Kakashi had never met Iruka, but according to the scroll he had been born in Konoha. He’d become an apprentice to a seals master at a young age, but his teacher had left the village and taken him with her when he was only sixteen. No one had heard from either of them since, but rumours had surfaced of a young seals master living in the frozen landscape of the north, and for whatever reason Sandaime wanted Iruka back strongly enough that he was willing to send Kakashi to go and investigate.

There was a lot missing from Kakashi’s intel. For instance, if this really was Iruka, was his teacher with him too? Had he left the village willingly or been taken? He suspected that Sandaime didn’t have many of the answers, but he’d have appreciated it if the old man had told him that straight instead of leaving him to wonder. Was a little openness too much to ask for?

He looked at the picture of Iruka again. It was seven years out of date, showing Iruka proudly wearing his new chuunin vest after he’d passed the exams, a mere two months before he’d vanished. Iruka was a good-looking kid, at that awkward age between childhood and adulthood, his face still young but his shoulders broadening and some definite muscle under that wiry, growth-spurt frame. There was a distinctive scar across the bridge of his nose and Kakashi idly wondered how he’d got it.

A shout from the captain made him look up, and a sudden flurry of activity among the crew hastened him to his feet. The captain was barking orders as she strode down the deck, and she paused by him and jerked her head towards the prow, her long, dark ponytail swinging.

“Land’s in sight,” she said. “Welcome to the end of the world.”

Kakashi tucked the scroll into his coat and weaved around the sailors to the front of the ship. Before them, still some way off, were the shadowy shapes of ice-capped mountains, hazy and blue under the clear sky. For some reason they took Kakashi by surprise. Whenever he’d pictured their destination, he’d seen only a barren wilderness of ice and snow. He’d never imagined there could be beauty in a place as harsh as this.

As they steadily grew closer over the next couple of hours, the land revealed more of itself. The mountains weren’t as close to the shore as they’d first appeared. They stopped abruptly some miles before the coast and gave way to a flatter, rocky expanse of land covered in some kind of plant life: grass or moss, dark green and sparse. There was no sign of a human settlement, the land untouched.

The ship dropped anchor about half a mile from the shore, and Kakashi, the captain and the first mate lowered a wooden rowboat into the water and made their way through the shallows. The water was clear enough that Kakashi could see schools of silver fish flitting through it, and spiny sea urchins clinging to the rocks below. For days the only sounds he’d heard had been the crash of the waves and the voices of the crew, but now the air was filled with the cries of terns wheeling through the air, and he watched as one swooped down and plucked something out of the water, which wriggled in its beak as it was carried away.

“Are you sure this is the right place?” Kakashi asked.

The captain shrugged. “These are the coordinates I was given. There are definitely people living up here somewhere, but I’ve never been to this part of the coast before so I can’t tell you where to find them.”

“Great.”

The bottom of the boat scraped against rock several feet from the shore, so Kakashi and the captain were forced to use chakra to walk over the waves to reach solid ground. They left the first mate to watch the boat – a task he wasn’t best pleased with and Kakashi couldn’t blame him – and crunched their way up the pebble beach together.

“Let’s split up,” Kakashi said. “We can do a brief scout, get a feel for the land, and report back in an hour. If there’s no sign of civilisation we’ll have to plan for a larger search.”

A breeze blew a loose lock of the captain’s hair against her mouth and she scraped it back before she answered.

“I’m being paid enough to go on a wild goose chase but it doesn’t mean I’ll enjoy it,” she griped. “He’d better be here.”

“Only one way to find out.”

They made a small cairn of stones to mark the meeting place and then Kakashi headed east along the coast and the captain strode off to the west. The beach itself was narrow, stretching up a shallow gradient from the water and then flattening into an expanse of rocky scrubland before it started to rise again towards the mountains. There were no trees or bushes, but there were a few tiny white flowers in the tough grass. Kakashi made an effort not to step on them. It seemed unfair to crush them after they’d beaten all the odds to bloom in such inhospitable terrain.

He hadn’t gone far when a sudden noise made him pause and look towards the sea. Three seals were splashing out of the water and pulling themselves up the beach, bouncing their soft bodies over the stones without seeming to mind the roughness. Kakashi stood still and watched them approach, expecting them to panic and turn around once they noticed him, but they didn’t. To his surprise they came right up off the beach and stopped only feet away, blinking up at him with liquid black eyes. Kakashi had never seen seals in person before. Somehow they reminded him of his dogs. It was something about the shape of their faces. Plus they were kind of cute.

“Uh, hi,” he said.

The seals just looked at him.

“I don’t suppose you know a guy called Iruka,” he said, and wondered if the journey had driven him a little crazy after all. “Dark hair, scar across his nose, a little younger than me. Any of you?”

One of the seals raised a flipper and waved it up and down. It looked almost like it was pointing the way.

“Thanks for the directions,” Kakashi said. “Well, it was nice meeting you. I’d better be on my way.”

He carried on walking, following the coastline. Behind him one of the seals barked, and he held up a hand and waved without looking back. The animals were friendly out here. He hoped that didn’t mean the land was so free of humans that they’d never met one before. That didn’t bode well for his mission.

He’d probably have better luck if he went inland, but he was wary of doing that yet. There was no map for this land, and there weren’t many natural landmarks. He had a compass and some flare seals he could use to signal for help, but he’d never live it down if he got lost within an hour of landing. Better to play it safe for today and get an idea of where to search in a larger group tomorrow. It was too late in the afternoon to go far now anyway, even if he spotted a village in the distance.

It was about time to turn around when he saw it. Not a village, but a short way further along the coast he was certain he saw something that didn’t belong. The land raised into a small cliff, and in the shelter of the promontory, just off the beach, there was a brown smudge that didn’t quite match the colour of the rocks. It looked like a hut.

Kakashi hesitated. If he carried on, he wouldn’t be back in time to meet the captain, but it was so close that it seemed a cop-out to turn around now without at least taking a quick glance. He took a moment to weigh up his options and then decided to head on towards the cliff.

To save time, he body flickered, creating a rush of wind that rustled the heads of the flowers and sent tiny stones rolling on the beach. Within minutes he was standing outside the hut, far enough from the door that he was out of range of any possible attack but close enough that if someone was inside, they’d know he was there. The hut itself was small, big enough to house a single room, and the wood was old and weathered by the elements. There were the remains of a fire on the side sheltered from the sea breeze, charred wood beneath a flat cooking stone, and a pair of snowshoes beside the front door. The windows were grimy and so dark that Kakashi suspected they were covered from the inside. He couldn’t see any light or movement.

Cautiously, he approached the door. He knocked twice and waited, but no one answered. It probably wasn’t locked. He was reaching for the handle when a voice called down from somewhere above him.

“You know, it’s rude to barge into someone’s house without an invitation.”

Kakashi stepped back sharply and looked up. There was a man crouched on the clifftop about thirty feet above him. Kakashi couldn’t see much of him from this angle, but he had long, dark hair and a Konoha accent.

“Umino Iruka?” he asked.

The man considered him in silence, then stood up and jumped. He cast an air jutsu on the way down that slowed his descent, the folds of his clothes flapping around him and his hair buffeting up in the breeze then falling back down around his shoulders when he landed neatly on the ground.

It was Iruka without a doubt. He was seven years older but he still looked like the boy in the photograph. Since he’d left Konoha he’d become a wilder version of himself: his hair fell almost to his elbows, some of it loose and some of it plaited with feathers and beads. He was dressed in the traditional kilt of the region, with a fur cloak pinned around his shoulders and leggings that disappeared into a pair of tan boots. There were gold cuffs at his wrists and a long cord knotted with shark’s teeth hung around his neck. An arm appeared from beneath the cloak to smooth down the skirt of the kilt, and Kakashi was shocked to see that it was bare from the shoulder down. The temperature was slightly below freezing, yet Iruka didn’t show any signs of feeling the cold.

“Who’s asking?” Iruka said.

It had been a long time since Kakashi had met someone who didn’t recognise him on sight. He was almost offended.

“My name is Hatake Kakashi,” he said, expecting that to elicit a response, but Iruka didn’t react.

“And?”

Kakashi frowned. Was he being overly narcissistic, expecting Iruka to at least know his name? The kid had lived in Konoha until he was sixteen – had he also been living under a rock?

“Sharingan Kakashi,” he added. “The copy nin.”

Iruka shrugged and flicked a braid over his shoulder.

“OK, Sharingan Kakashi. What exactly do you want with me?”

Iruka really didn’t know him. Either that or he was an excellent actor, but what would be the point of pretending?

“The hokage sent me to look for you,” he said. “And bring you home if you’re willing to come.”

Iruka gave him a look that Kakashi couldn’t quite pin down. He had warm brown eyes and a sharp gaze; together, despite the scent of snow in the air, they made Kakashi think of heat.

“This is my home,” Iruka said.

Kakashi took an exaggerated look around at the icy sea stretching away to one side and the mountains on the other.

“Seems a little lonely.”

“I have company enough,” Iruka said. He didn’t elaborate, and Kakashi couldn’t blame him for being cagey. He would be too if a stranger turned up on his doorstep in a place as isolated as this. When was the last time Iruka had seen a new face? How long had he been living here?

“What are you doing here?” he asked. Fuck it, they could dance around this conversation the whole day but Kakashi would rather get straight to the point.

Iruka frowned at him. He seemed to be weighing up his options, and Kakashi let him. He could be blunt but he wasn’t stupid enough to scare Iruka off, or he hoped he wasn’t. The whole point of the mission was to convince him to come back to Konoha.

“If you want to talk, we might as well go inside,” Iruka said. He opened the door to the hut and led the way in.

Kakashi stepped slowly over the threshold. It was dark inside, and he realised that what he’d assumed were covered windows were in fact strips of hide tacked across holes in the walls. Of course there was no glass out here. He didn’t even know where the wood had come from, though presumably there was a settlement nearby, maybe even a trading post. Kakashi had no idea how many people lived in the northern lands or how spread out they were. He should probably have done some research into the culture before he left Konoha but he hadn’t realised his target had gone native. He’d thought this would be an easy search and rescue mission, not whatever it had turned into.

The inside of the hut was even smaller than Kakashi had guessed. There was a makeshift bed along one wall which took up a third of the floorspace: a thin mattress stuffed with straw or feathers and topped with a pile of furs. Herbs and strips of dried meat hung from the ceiling and filled the space with a pungent smell. There was a map pinned to one wall, presumably of the local area; it was mostly blank space but covered with scribbled annotations. Another wall was lined with shelves, squeezed in next to the window, and laden with jars, knives, ink and strips of paper, needles and thread, tools and other small, functional objects.

Iruka reached up and touched something on the ceiling, and a soft light emitted from a paper seal. Then he settled himself on the pile of furs and looked up at Kakashi expectantly. There was nowhere else to sit, so Kakashi joined him, uneasy at the intimacy, although Iruka didn’t seem to mind. He unpinned his cloak and laid it aside, exposing a pair of strong shoulders and well-toned biceps.

“As I was saying, Kakashi,” Iruka said, and Kakashi was thrown once again by the informal way Iruka addressed him, “this is my home. Why have you been sent to fetch me? Why now?”

They were sitting so close together that their legs were almost touching. Kakashi inhaled and caught a scent that he thought came from Iruka or his clothes: smoky and spiced, with a hint of the ocean. A warm smell like cooking over a campfire on the beach.

“We didn’t know where you were until now,” he said. “We didn’t know for sure it was you we’d find here. What about your teacher, Hiwatari Asuka? Is she here too?”

Iruka shook his head, and the glass beads braided into his hair clicked against each other.

“I’m the only foreigner here,” he said.

“Then where is she?”

Iruka shrugged. “You didn’t answer my first question,” he said. “Why have you come for me?”

This was why Kakashi wished the hokage had been frank with him. He didn’t honestly know what made Iruka so important. From the little information he had on Iruka, he’d been a fairly average genin except for his talent with seals. But there were plenty of chuunin and tokujo in the village who specialised in seals. Iruka’s teacher had been the one with the reputation, someone who’d been feared and respected, but no one had been sent out to look for her in years. Maybe Sandaime thought her student would become as skilled as she was. It certainly wasn’t because Konoha cared for the orphans who fell through the cracks, though wouldn’t it be nice if they lived in a world where children weren’t left for the wolves?

“You were taken,” he settled on. “I don’t know all the circumstances, but that shouldn’t have happened to you. We want to bring you home.”

He hoped Iruka would shed some light on why he’d left Konoha, but Iruka was silent, giving him that inscrutable look again. Kakashi didn’t ask. Not yet. Iruka was still too wary, and trust had to be earnt.

“It’ll start getting dark soon,” Iruka said suddenly. “You should head back to your ship.”

So he’d seen the ship. He’d probably seen it long before it had anchored, yet he hadn’t fled to the settlement. He’d stayed and waited. Maybe he did want to be taken away from this place after all.

Kakashi stood up. “Can I come back and see you in the morning?”

“If you want to,” Iruka said. “I’ll be around.”

He didn’t get up, so Kakashi let himself out of the hut. When he turned to shut the door, his last glimpse was of Iruka watching him, head cocked to one side like he was trying to figure him out.

  


* * *

  


The next morning, Kakashi woke with the sunrise. Usually there was activity on the ship no matter the time of day or night, but since they were anchored the sailors had all been able to sleep through the night. Kakashi had spent a lot of the previous evening thinking about Iruka, alone in his hut with only the whistle of the wind for company. How could anyone live like that? Surely Iruka would come back to Konoha. What was there for him out here? It was a beautiful wilderness, but a wilderness nonetheless.

He had told the captain about Iruka, and she wasn’t all that happy about letting Kakashi go back to see him alone but had grudgingly agreed that sending more people would probably spook him. A group of sailors would be exploring the land today so the navigator could map the coastline, but otherwise they were letting Kakashi act alone. Technically Kakashi was the mission lead, although the captain was master of her ship and he doubted any of the sailors would choose his side over hers if there was a disagreement. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.

It was shortly past dawn when he arrived back on the beach, which was colder first thing in the morning than it had been yesterday afternoon. Kakashi wrapped his scarf around the lower half of his face, not caring that his breath made the thick wool damp. His fingers ached with cold despite his gloves, and he suspected his toes would start to feel it soon too. He remembered Iruka’s bare arms yesterday and shivered.

About halfway to Iruka’s hut, he encountered the same seals – or so he assumed – that had been so friendly yesterday. They were lying on their sides as he approached but looked up as he got close.

“Morning,” Kakashi said. “Getting in some sunbathing while the beach is quiet, I see.”

The sun was in fact bright in the sky, although not far above the horizon. Kakashi had heard that in the summers here it never set, shining through endless days, and in the winter it vanished and plunged the whole land into a night that lasted months. Thank God they’d made the journey in the spring.

He was about to carry on when one of the seals shifted lazily and Kakashi caught sight of something on its stomach. There were strange markings in its fur that didn’t look natural. Kakashi stepped slowly closer, not wanting to frighten the animal away, and although it watched him it didn’t move at all.

To Kakashi’s astonishment, he recognised the markings. They were the symbols used to create a barrier seal. What on earth was going on here? He glanced over at the other two seals and noticed there were similar designs in their fur too, although with different symbols. Before he could investigate further, though, all three seals suddenly looked out towards the sea.

The waves parted a little way from the shore, and a head appeared, then a pair of naked shoulders, a bare chest…and Iruka walked out of the freezing northern sea, stark naked.

“Oh, Kakashi,” he said, unperturbed, wringing his hair out onto the pebbles. “You’re early.”

Kakashi couldn’t help but look. He really couldn’t. Iruka had a lean, muscular body, surprisingly tanned for this part of the world. There was a nasty looking scar on his right thigh that looked like something large had bitten him – Kakashi remembered the shark tooth necklace – and on his stomach were the symbols of a seal that was alien to Kakashi. It had been painted on with a dark red dye, which had stained the skin sufficiently not to be washed away by the water.

Kakashi knew about seal tattoos. The ANBU tattoo on his arm was one, used by the hokage to summon ANBU, but he’d never seen anything quite like this before.

“You’re staring,” Iruka said, amused, and even in the biting cold, Kakashi felt his face heat.

“You’re naked!” he shot back. “In the sea! There’s _ice_ in there.”

“Not too much at this time of year,” Iruka said. He flipped his hair back over his shoulders where it smacked wetly against his back, and sauntered up the beach towards Kakashi, who tried valiantly to keep his eyes on Iruka’s face.

“But it’s _cold_ ,” he tried again.

Iruka stared at him like he was a stupid child.

“Yes, I know,” he said. “We’re in the Arctic circle, of course it’s cold.”

Kakashi had the wild feeling that they were speaking two different languages and somehow hadn’t noticed. He tried to regain some measure of eloquence.

“What I’m trying to ask,” he said, “is how the fuck you can swim around butt naked without catching hypothermia.”

The surprise on Iruka’s face was wholly unexpected. It was like he genuinely hadn’t realised that might be a possibility. He gestured at the seal on his stomach.

“You mean you’ve never seen one of these before?” He sounded as bewildered as Kakashi felt. “Wait, you’re walking around _without_ a heating seal?”

“A heating seal?” Kakashi had never heard of such a thing.

“Oh my God, you don’t even know what it is?”

Iruka snagged Kakashi’s scarf and tugged it down, catching the mask as well. Kakashi was suddenly bare-faced, the sea breeze chilling him instantly. Iruka pressed a palm to his cheek. The drops of water on his fingers were icy, but the skin was warm.

“You’re cold!” Iruka exclaimed. “I thought you were wearing a lot of clothes. Why the hell aren’t they teaching this in your village? Where are you even from?”

“I…” Kakashi frowned. “I told you, I’m from Konoha. The same place you’re from.”

“Never heard of it.”

Wait…what?

“You are Umino Iruka,” Kakashi said slowly. “You must be. I’ve seen a photo of you. That scar is pretty distinctive.”

Iruka touched the bridge of his nose.

“I’ve always wondered how I got this,” he said. “Iruka, huh? Doesn’t ring a bell, but I like it. You can call me that if you want.”

Kakashi spread his hands, thoroughly lost, but Iruka didn’t elaborate. In frustration, Kakashi turned to the seals with a pleading expression, as though they could help.

“Don’t look at me,” said one of the seals. “I’m as confused as you are.”

Kakashi almost screamed.

“Why is there a talking seal?” he demanded, with only a mild note of hysteria in his voice. “Seals don’t talk!”

“That’s speciesist,” said another seal. “Boss, your friend is rude.”

“He’s not from around here,” Iruka said apologetically. “Don’t hold it against him.”

Something clicked in Kakashi’s head. He should have realised when he’d first seen the symbols on the seals’ stomachs but he’d been distracted by Iruka’s naked body. As excuses went, it was a good one.

“These are your summons?” he asked Iruka, who beamed at him as if Kakashi was a child who’d finally learnt to put the square block into the square hole instead of jamming it into the circle.

“Yes! This is Barrier.” He gestured to the seal with the barrier symbol on his chest. “And this is Ward. And that’s Splode.”

“Splode?”

“Short for Exploding Tag,” Splode explained.

Iruka was grinning at him expectantly. Kakashi closed his eye for a brief moment to gather his inner strength.

“You’re a seals master,” he said weakly. “I get it.”

Iruka laughed delightedly. “I’ve been waiting three years for someone to get that joke! It doesn’t translate well into the language here so nobody understands.”

“We get the joke,” Barrier said wearily. “We’ve got the joke many, _many_ times.”

“Listen,” Iruka said, “when you live in the ass crack of nowhere by yourself for three years, you develop a certain sense of humour. Or maybe I was always like this, who knows?”

Kakashi couldn’t help himself. He laughed. Less at the terrible pun than at Iruka’s glee at making it. He liked seeing Iruka more relaxed, found him endearing even. The nakedness didn’t hurt either.

“I’d like to talk to you some more,” he said. “About who you are, how you came to be here. I gather you don’t remember much, but maybe between us we can fit some of the pieces together.”

Iruka sat down on the pebbles and leaned back against Barrier, who grumbled but allowed Iruka to use him as a cushion. He didn’t seem to mind the smooth stones beneath him or Kakashi’s increasingly losing battle to not check him out.

“All right,” Iruka agreed. “But I’m not making any promises to come with you when you leave.”

Kakashi couldn’t deny that he seemed entirely in his element here. However Iruka had washed up on this coast, he’d adapted to the point where he was as self-sufficient as a native. Part of Kakashi didn’t want to take him away from this, but the much larger part hoped Iruka would change his mind. Because Kakashi liked him. He found Iruka intriguing, charismatic and devastatingly attractive.

He determined then that he wouldn’t leave until he’d figured Iruka out.

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by two pieces of art by dahtwitchi. Mostly it was inspired by some art they drew on the Umino Hours discord server with Iruka hanging out with literal seals. You can see one of the pieces [on tumblr here](https://dahtwitchi.tumblr.com/post/613026538596761600/seal-master-iruka-d). I was also inspired by their comic [here on AO3](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22894144) which features Iruka with long hair in a kilt and possibly amnesiac. They left it open to interpretation but I didn't really answer any of the questions lmao.
> 
> I don't know if I'm going to write any more in this verse. I'd intended just to write a very short piece of crack humour making puns about seals, but then this happened. I think in the spirit of twitchi's comic I might leave it open to interpretation, so if anyone wants to continue/remix/reimagine anything from this fic in their own work then please feel free.
> 
> UPDATE: twitchi made some gorgeous art inspired by this fic, which is [on tumblr here](https://dahtwitchi.tumblr.com/post/613211958392569856/hazelbeka-wrote-a-fic-after-the-seal-incident-and). I'm screaming, it's beautiful!


End file.
